5 Years at TransferMate - Interview with Michelle Highland

What is your favorite thing about working in CluneTech / TransferMate?

The upskilling of my brain. Whether it’s crafting a policy or procedure, knitting together pieces of information to make a decision about a client or coordinating our response to a regulator, I am kept mentally challenged daily.

What has been your biggest achievement or highlight since joining CluneTech / TransferMate?

Having the opportunity to serve in 4 different roles since joining 5 years ago. The skills I learned and the relationships I have formed have helped me in each role.

Who or what has inspired you the most during your time here?

The willingness of people to help me, even if I haven’t work with them often or haven’t ever worked with them. While TransferMate attracts all sorts of people to work for the company, I think the common gene we share is our willingness to go just a bit further to help each other out, even if it’s a quick call to perk up the spirits or a helpful referral to someone who can assist with your question.

What is the biggest change that you have witnessed in your time here?

Changes to the Compliance team with new joiners, processes and systems.  In their own way, all these changes have helped the team focus, move forward and streamline our workflow allowing us to improve our delivery of services to internal and external customers.

What is the greatest challenge that you have faced in your time here and how did you overcome it?

Transitioning to the BSA AML Compliance Manager role for US and Canada was and is my biggest challenge--there is no “overcoming” it in terms of challenges! I think of it more  like navigating the change by establishing reliable systems to manage information and workflow and bringing the right people on the team to make it even better. That, and having a dependable sense of humor!

What has been your favourite project to work on?

I enjoyed forming the Policies & Procedures team (P&P team motto: “We are small but mighty!”) establishing guidelines for policy and procedure creation and fashioning a more formal governance process to track cataloguing, production and review of these documents.  

Do you have advice for someone who is just starting their career in CluneTech / TransferMate?‍

These steps, done in this order, has helped me througout my career:

Listen.

Take copious notes.

Listen more.

Ask questions.

Update notes.

Rinse and repeat.

Don’t forget to have a laugh every now and then.

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